Happy New Year ... from Singapore

We made it to Singapore! Our last day in Ubud was spent in bookshops and salons. It poured rain all day so it wasn't bad to wander around and look at things. We spent the better part of the afternoon getting haircuts and having foot massages in a salon. It is important to really be specific about what you want done when having a hair cut. Apparently, saying "Just a trim - take about an inch off" wasn't really clear. Suddenly about 6 inches disappeared from the front of my face and in a very high pitched voice squeaked out "too much" but by then it was too late. "New style" said the cutter (that's what I call her now). So my hair is shorter and I have very long bangs, which I haven't had in more than 10 years. The only good thing is that it is just hair and it will grow back. Michael and Aidan both managed to get good cuts.

Lele picked us up at 6:30 and drove us into the airport in Denpassar. Our flight to Singapore left at 10:30. Traffic on the way to the airport was horrible. Apparently all the tourists from Java were in Bali for the holidays clogging up the roads. They drive over on the ferry. Lele mentioned that he has never seen it that bad. Luckily we had lots of buffer time and arrived for our flight with 2 hours to spare.

We arrived around 1:00 a.m. without incident and caught a cab to our hostel in Little India. The hostel is called the Tresor Tavern hostel. We were ushered into a 6 bed dorm room and promptly went to sleep. Although it is a bit cramped this was one of the better priced places at $35 each per night per person (Singapore is expensive!) We also get breakfast in the morning and it is a bit eclectic - toast, eggs and fried hot dog wieners yesterday and baked beans and chicken nuggets this morning. Aidan is liking the breakfast food.

Mike and Aidan went to explore yesterday morning and Aidan managed to trip and fall just down the street from the hostel. He now has a very large ugly scrape on his knee. It matches the scrape on his other knee that he got in Ubud.

Yesterday we walked up to Sim Lim Square and went camera shopping. After some wheeling and dealing we came away happy with a new Olympus camera and so now the pictures will be better again. We had some lunch at the hawker stalls and marveled at the cleanliness of the city. We were still very tired from our late flight and ended up heading back to the hotel for a late afternoon nap. The 33C heat and humidity also wears you down.

Last night we took the MRT down to City Hall to watch the fireworks and New Year's celebrations. Part of our celebration included taking Aidan for his monthly McDonald's fix. We and a million of our closest friends welcomed in the new year at Singapore's waterfront with a spectacular fireworks show. We were dreading getting back on the subway with all the people, but it turned out to not be too bad at all. Everything was orderly and the trains run every 3 minutes, so no problems whatsoever. We were back at the hostel by 1:00 a.m.

This morning we are all feeling a bit better rested, although I am definitely getting a cold. Off to the Jurong Bird Park this afternoon and maybe the Night Safari at the zoo. We will likely make arrangements to head to Kuala Lumpur on January 3rd.

Fairly boring account of our life over the last couple of days. Mike and I have been doing some serious thinking to what changes we want to make to our lives in 2009. We do this reflection every year and we are in the process of setting some new goals for ourselves when we get back to Canada. More on that later.

Happy New Year everyone!

Aidan chooses the blog title and it is ... Army Aidan

This morning, Lele picked us up at 09:00 and we headed out to tour this part of Bali. Lele is a guide and we hired him to drive us around Ubud for the day. We had many questions about Bali and the culture and he had just as many questions about Canada's culture. So we all got along really well.

We went to see the Putra Barong dancing performance. The Barong play represents an eternal fight between good and evil spirits. Barong (a mythological animal) represents a good spirit and Rangda (a mythological monster) represents an evil one. We arrived at the performance venue, purchased tickets ($5) and were ushered into an open air theatre that already was packed full to standing room only with Javanese visitors. We were led to a row (note: no one else coming in was really being led anywhere) and suddenly we had seats. Mike seems to think it is just because we are foreigners that we got seats in a completely packed venue. We were provided an English description of each scene in the performance, which was very helpful to understand the characters and what was going on. Musicians played and the performance started. It is difficult to describe the costumes worn in this combination dance and play. The Barong was huge and looked like a very large shaggy dog like creature. Two persons were inside this costume. There was also a monkey and an evil witch and women dancers, and servants. The evil ones were fun because they had very long fingernails. Aidan was spellbound throughout the performance. It was almost as much fun to watch and listen to the crowd as they booed and laughed during each scene. It was also interesting to watch the sexual jokes made during the performance. At one point the three jokers slew a large baboon like character and then to their amazement saw the groin area continue to move. This proceeded to an erect penis appearing and when they pulled it got very large and they kept trying to whack it down with a machete - finally it stayed down and when they rolled the creature over - it was just the tail. People in the audience were howling the whole time.

Lele then took us to a very large artist compound. Here we watched Balinese artists work and then we were toured through the different galleries - landscape, abstract, modern, traditional Balinese and mixed modern and traditional. The traditional paintings are very detailed and one alone took the artist three years to paint (keep in mind these are also very large pieces). The asking price was $20,000. Really beautiful pictures that would show the temples and the people of Bali.

Lele explained to us that the people are very bound to the land here and that nature is woven in with everything that they do. This was very evident in the two temples that we visited. I should also mention that there are temples every two feet in Bali - from large to very small. The two we went to were of the larger variety, but people make offerings three times a day here and many have there own small temples right near to wear they live. We all donned sarongs for our temple visit as the legs cannot be bare. They give them out to tourists to put on as you enter the temple compound. The Gunung Kawi is an amazing group of stone shrines cut into cliffs on either side of a plunging river. The shrines are thought to have been carved as monuments in the 11th century. The Goa Gajah cavern was believed to have been a Buddhist hermitage. Both sites have walkways, waterfalls, and bridges leading through these temples. Rice terraces frame the background and the temples are cool under the large trees. Very beautiful. The several hundred steps leading down into the Gunung Kawi were not that fun to walk up in the heat - but hey we need the exercise.

Our next stop was lunch at the top of the "mountain." The mountain was actually part of a volcanic ring of mountains and hills around a large lake. Our view from our table was of Gunung Agung - Bali's highest and most revered mountain. A 700 metre crater marks its summit. The volcano directly across from us had a lava field stretching all the way down the mountain, whose last eruption was in the 1920's. We watched tiny trucks down below hauling black volcanic soil for use elsewhere. Very impressive views here and because it is a holiday time in Indonesia the place was like Niagara Falls on a hot day. Busy and crowded.

On the way back to Ubud, Lele took us through the more agricultural areas and we stopped at many rice fields and terraces. We learned about the two types of rice grown here and how everything is still done by hand. Most of the rice grown here is used on Bali. There are also coffee plantations nearby, but because we already had experienced that in Costa Rica, we decided that it was time to head back. Besides it was close to 4:00 and we had a full day.

Upon our return we had a cold beer and showed Lele pictures of Canada. He was very interested in the weather, because here the temperature is basically the same all the time. Aidan says munch, munch, munch - so it must be time to head out for dinner. Tomorrow is looking like a spa day (yeah!).

Feeding the Monkeys

Today was a rest and recovery day in Ubud. Susan and I are still not quite feeling 100% after yesterday's boating fun. We are, however, both very much enjoying this part of Bali.

Ubud is a village of about 8,000 people in the middle of a rice-farming area, but it is now almost wholly given over to tourism (i.e. the 'real' Bali experience). Despite the rapid growth, it still remains a charming place to visit, and we find it enchanting. There is a temple on every corner and Bali's Hindu heritage is really at it's most vivid here. There are many museums and cultural activities and we hope to sample some of these in the days ahead.

We're staying at Warsa's Garden Lodge on Monkey Forest Road, the main street in town. For $35 a night we have a very large room with a king size bed (and additional mattress for Aidan), air conditioning, huge bathroom, and a large private balcony. It has a very pleasant pool and morning breakfast is served to you in your room. In short, its great, and we're quite happy to stay here for the remainder of our time in Indonesia.

We spent a good part of the day walking along Monkey Forest Road and doing a little shopping. Aidan's sandals have worn out and we managed to find him another pair. Ubud is a very artistic community and many of the shops are dedicated to handicrafts and silver. Incense is in the air everywhere. There is also an abundance of body spa, relaxation and spiritual healing centres here. We will definitely be taking part as a 90 minute massage costs less than $20. Susan is also planning on having the Javanese Lulur (1hr, 40 min.) which is a revitalizing traditional massage followed by an exotic tumeric body scrub and then a flower bath for a whopping $11. And since a pedicure only cost $4-5 she has added that to the list, and then a facial..... I am getting off track.

Monkey Forest Road is an appropriate name as the Monkey Forest Sanctuary is at one end of the road. Once again we are cursed the fact that we don't have a proper camera. The cell phone camera just cannot capture the vividness of the colours and the beautiful scenery. The forest is lush and cool and full of several troops of long-tailed Balinese macaques (small, cute grayish monkeys). They do take food out of your hand and Aidan enjoyed feeding them bananas. We also had the opportunity to really observe them very closely and it was fun to watch the antics of the many baby monkeys. The forest is also home to many moss covered temples and statues. There is also an impressive dragon bridge, and two very large komodo dragons carved out of a rock face and forming a shower. A very enjoyable walk.

Later in the afternoon we came back to the hotel to have a swim and do some reading. Aidan is also happy to play with his DS as much as we allow. He has also taken up drawing a lot and we are constantly going out to find new scribble pads. He is working on perfecting World War II army planes right now.

Tomorrow we're going to see a bit of the countryside of Bali. We've hired a car and driver for the day ($50) to take us to the main sites on the island. Should be interesting.

Travel day from hell

Today started off promising enough; beautiful clear skies, a big breakfast buffet and a quick trip into Senggigi from Holiday Resort. We were well rested and happy.

The fun started at 9 am when we walked down to the ocean to board the little boat that would ferry us over to the larger ship that would then take us back to Bali. The surf was very high and the back of the little boat was bucking up and down about 6 feet in the waves. With careful timing we all managed to scramble on board without incident. After boarding the bigger ship we all scampered up to the upper levels to stake out our territory / shade. The ship was also moving around quite a bit and it didn't take long to realize that the waves were bigger than our trip over to Lombok.

We were looking forward to the ship getting underway with the expectation that the bobbing would stop as we started moving through the water, however we were delayed long enough that Susan was already not feeling well, so we all took some Gravol and tried to enjoy the sun and breeze on the front deck.

Our happy day quickly started turning sour as the waves really started affecting Susan. After the first half hour she was over the railing at the front of the ship getting sick. She was also getting wet as the ship was ploughing though every second or third wave. We all retreated to the main cabin, which is about 10x14 room with some bench seats down the sides and I went to gather most of our belongings from the upper deck. By this time we were out to sea and the ship was pitching enough that I didn't want to go back up and get Aidan's toy backpack and my sandals. I was feeling it pretty bad too, and Aidan wasn't far behind.

Our pleasant 3.5 hour boat ride back to Bali was a 5 hour ride from hell. Susan threw-up at least 7 times, and for the first time in my life I was seasick as well, hanging over the railing twice and pretty close to number three. Our only saving grace was that Aidan felt really bad, but did not get sick. He managed to sleep through almost the whole thing.

When we weren't leaning over the side retching and getting drenched by the spray from the ship bashing into waves, we were lying down on the benches praying for this to end. The waves were 6-10 feet high from what I could tell the few times I looked up, and this was on a clear day. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like out there in a storm.

We managed to arrive in Bali in one piece and board the bus to Ubud. The air conditioning was only working marginally and we had the slowest driver in Indonesia, but we did eventually get to our intended destination by about 4:30 pm. By this time we were very tired, but we still had to find a place to stay. We hired a driver to take us to the hotel that had been recommended to us by friends, but they were full. Ditto for the next 3 places we tried. By this time Aidan was crying and Susan was exhausted, and I wasn't much better. On our next try we managed to secure a reasonable place to stay, and after a few minutes flopped down on the bed.

We realize that despite everything today we do have a some things to be thankful about. We are ever so thankful that Aidan didn't sick, that would have been horrible; we are also thankful that we decided to go to Yogyakarta by plane last week instead of visiting Komodo island, with all its requisite boat trips; and finally, we are also grateful that there was no lasting harm from our ordeal today other than a few upset stomachs. It could have been worse!

Final note: if you are considering island hopping here in Indonesia (or anywhere for that matter), and are even remotely prone to seasickness, we highly recommend you check the weather carefully before you go, or better yet, just fly.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

While Canada is having the snowiest Christmas on record, we are enjoying a perfect tropical day - 33 C, almost no clouds in the sky and a beautiful beach resort. Santa came to visit us in Senggigi and Aidan was very happy to get a Nintendo DS. Mom and Dad got some books to read and we all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner down by the ocean. The spread was amazing and we're all ready for a snooze.

Tomorrow we're heading back to Bali to visit Ubud - the cultural centre of the island. We leave on the boat at 9 am and should arrive around 3 pm. Hopefully there are rooms available - the resort here has gone from empty to almost completely full last night.

Hope Santa was good to all of you as well.

Monuments and Cat Poo Coffee

The island of Java ... what can I say but really small island and really a lot of people (132 million to be more precise). One city merges into the next and I have never seen so many motorcycles and bemos (bicycle drawn carts) all competing for space on the roads. Any spaces between the few cars are taken up by motorcycles carrying between two and five persons. Many of the women ride side saddle. <p>

We have been having wonderful food on this trip and Indonesian food is no exception.. Aidan continues to enjoy his chicken satay with peanut sauce and Mike and I have been sampling the various curries and rice dishes. I signed up for yet another cooking class on Tuesday at a nearby restaurant called Via Via. Last night we joined Rolph and Karen, a German couple, for dinner and heard all about their adventures. They were planning to rent motorcyles and travel to Prambanan today.<p>

On Monday morning we were up very bright and early at 4:15 a.m and were picked up by our driver to take us to Borobudur and Prambanan. Of course, it was raining. However by the time we arrived the weather had cleared and the rain had stopped. The temple opens to visitors at 6:00 a.m and in the summer months the sunrise is at 6:13 a.m. so tourists flock to see the sunrise. This time of year is not good for sunrises but is good to avoid the later day heat and crowds. Borobudur is one of the largest Buddhist temples in the world. It was constructed in the early part of the 9th century A.D. Borobudur was later covered by volcanic ash by an eruption in 1006 and was only rediscovered in 1814. Buddhists on Java abandoned the temple and Java is now a Muslim country. We paid $5 for a guide and had a great tour of the temple and learned many things about Buddhism and the meaning behind some of the 1500 narrative relief panels carved into the terraces to illustrate Buddhist teachings. There are over 400 Buddha images sitting on the terraces. Aidan was happy to touch the lucky Buddha's foot and make his wish. <p> Aidan was once again was a rock star and was mobbed by countless school girls who asked for pictures. Our guide told us that many visit the temple with school groups from more rural parts of Java and this may be their first or second time that they have seen a foreigner. They are particularly enthralled with the contrasting hair and skin colour and find us funny looking. They all asked politely through our guide and when we agreed they would squeal and shriek with delight. Aidan hammed it up as usual and delighted many. According to our guide, Buddha would approve for making so many others happy.<p>

We stopped at several other smaller temples, including Mendut Temple that has an amazing 3m-high statue of Buddha seated with two disciples. Some academics claim this statue was meant to sit on top of Borobudur but proved impossible to raise to the summit. Our guide disagreed and said that the large stupa that tops the temple was meant to remain empty because it symbolizes Nirvana and infinity. Interesting.<p>

Our final stop was at Prambanan, which is the grandest Hindu temple complex in Java. Unfortunately much of this temple was damaged in the 2006 earthquake and the main temples were still off limits when we visited as they are being repaired. Again we hired a guide who took us around the enormous site and explained much about the Hindu deities. The largest temple is 47 metres high and decorated with thousands of carved deities. The statue of Shiva is in the central chamber, but we were not allowed into this temple. Around the entire complex are the remains of 224 small temples (only two of which remain standing). The complex was built in the 9th century AD and was abandoned soon after completion. Many of the temples had collapsed by the early 19th century and it wasn't until 1937 that any form of reconstruction began. We really enjoyed looking at all of the carvings that told the story of Krishna. Our guide had a good sense of humour and it was fun to look at all of the sex scenes displayed in the reliefs. <p>

We arrived back at our hotel at about noon and promptly fell asleep for an hour. We decided to go for lunch at the Civet Cafe, which is right in the front of our hotel. This was a great choice as they serve Kopi Luwak coffee. While Aidan enjoyed hot chocolate, Mike and I experienced the most expensive coffee in the world ... and it was really good!<p>

Kopi Luwak coffee is found only on the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is "special" because of the process for making the coffee. A type of tree dwelling marsupial called the sivet, which looks like a really ugly cat, and at one time considered to be pests actually is the key to this coffee. The sivet eats only the ripest and reddist coffee cherries and as you would expect, nature then takes its course, and the coffee beans are excreted almost intact. The digestive enzymes of the sivet remove most of the outer layers of the cherry leaving only the bean and according to the information we read, this gives the coffee its unique taste. Only 500 lbs are produced each year and the coffee sells for $75 for a 1/4 lb (on the world markets). Apparently the Japanese are the main buyers, but some places in the US have purchased the coffee for special cuppings (including Starbucks). So hey, for $8 a cup we had to try it. The server in the cafe pulled out the sivet feces to show us what it looks like and Aidan kept saying "Yuck". The French press came out and Mike and I said cheers and tasted. Honestly it was really good coffee and it did have a distinctive note that I have never tasted before (and no it wasn't a crap note). Heavy body, jungle, musty and syrupy without any bitterness and really good after taste. A very enjoyable and fun thing to do. When else could we ever try "cat poo coffee." <p>

Tis the Season ... To Relax in Yogyakarta (seriously)

Not much to report today. We taking it easy after flying to Yogyakarta from Matram on Lombok. The flights were rather interesting. Andrew, who lives in Jakarta, advised us to show up at the airport at 4 pm for a flight at 4:30. In his words 'they are always late, so don't bother going early'. We were still concerned about making the flight so we arrived at 3:30 and checked through quickly to the departure lounge where we ran into people who were still waiting for their 12 noon flight to leave, so we weren't too surprised when they announced that our flight was delayed until 6 pm.

Once the Lion Air flight was ready to go we got an interesting surprise. Stepping out on the tarmac to walk to the plane we were presented with a boxed dinner from McDonalds consisting of a piece of KFC-like fried chicken and a McRice ball. Why bother with airline food when you can have McDonalds deliver? The funny part is that the flight was only 45 minutes and you got food but not a drink. You had to pay for those!

We arrived in Sumbaya's international airport on the island of Java and disembarked down a ramp at the back of the plane (it was an old Boing MD-80). We could see people from the front of the plane disembarking through the normal gantry to the arrivals lounge on the second floor as we walked across the tarmac; all we could do was hope there was a way to get to the same place from the ground floor.

It didn't take us long to find the stairs up and the transit desk which provided us with new boarding passes for our short flight to Yogyakarta, however we had a harder time figuring out where our flight departed from. Our boarding pass said gate 3, but there was no corresponding flight on the monitor listing departures (and it never did appear!). Once we were in the Gate 3/4 departure area we spent the better part of 90 minutes going back and forth between the gates asking if this is was our flight. Lion Air planes were leaving every 5 minutes and we couldn't hear the announcements because the soccer game was on and everyone was cheering. Despite how this might sound, we really had more of a chuckle than a problem and soon boarded our plane for the short hop.

We are staying at the Prambanan Guest House in Yogyakarta which is very pleasant. For $20 a night you get a nice but basic room, a very nice breakfast in the morining and it has a very pleasant pool.

Tomorrow we will be heading to Borobudur (Bhuddist) and then Parambanan (Hindu) temples. Our tour leaves at 4:45 am to catch the sunrise. I'm very excited as this has been on my 'life list' for 20 years.

Happy Birthday Aidan

We have been camped on the island of Lombok for a few days now enjoying our time at the Holiday Resort - a 4 star property on the beach in Senggigi. Its proving to be a nice break from our usual accommodations. For $54 a night we have a beautiful room with two queen beds, marble countertops, air conditioning, satellite TV and a private deck. Our washroom is huge and even has a little garden in it! The grounds are immaculate and there is a huge pool, a games room, a full service spa and 4 restaurants. In short, its the kind of tropical resort you see in the glossy brochures back in Canada but can't afford.

Yesterday was Aidan's 7th birthday. The hotel whipped up a wonderful chocolate cake for us and we had the opportunity to celebrate by the pool with a really nice English family currently living in Jakarta. Joel, Charlotte, Andrew and Rachel are spending the week before Christmas in Lombok to escape the crowds that arrive in a few days. Rachel's parents are also visiting from Whales and we have an invitation to look them up when we get to the UK.

Aidan's presents this year were understandably light. We gave him a set of lego he was oogling in China (more military stuff) and 60,000 Rupiah ($6) to spend in town. He also got e-mail greetings from family and a card from the grandparents we have been carrying around for 3 months. Christmas will likely be the same, with a promise of a bigger present when we get home.

For better or worse, we haven't done much else to explore the area around Senggigi except to take a couple of trips into the tiny centre of town to eat. Its hard to drag yourself away from the resort, especially when Joel and Aidan are fully engaged in the pool. Susan did manage to fit a manicure and pedicure into our busy schedule, and I made arrangements for all of us to fly to Yogyacarta for a few days to visit Borobudur - one of the largest Buddhist monuments in the world. We will be returning to Senggigi and the Holiday Resort on the 24th for Christmas before heading back to Bali on Boxing Day.

We have been watching the weather in Canada over the past few days. Everyone seems to be in the deep freeze and the GTA was just walloped by a storm. We hope everyone is snug and safe in their houses and enjoys a wonderful white Christmas. We'll be thinking of you while we're having drinks by the pool. ;-)

Swimming with the Sea Turtles in the Gilis

So where did I leave off. We spent two days in Kuta Beach, Bali in the midst of party central. A beautiful beach with lots of people and a town that has been developing rapidly for more than 30 years. Had fun at the hotel, which had a nice pool and met a very nice guy from Hawaii. I think the last blog ended with us leaving to head to Gili Air Island.

I love this place. We have been in this wonderful little paradise on earth for three days and changed our boat tickets to allow us to stay one more day. We got here taking the Perama bus/boat. We left Kuta Beach at 10:30 a.m. and eventually ended up at Padamgbai where we had 1/2 hour for lunch (mmmmm Indonesian noodles; gaaa, Indonesian toilet). We were then put on a boat with about 25 others and headed out to the islands. There are three Gili Islands - Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, and Gili Air - are off the coast of Lombok. The first is the largest and is known as the party island, the second is the quietest and only has about 300 residents, and the third is the smallest and is known as being good for families. After dropping off others, we arrived at Gili Air around 6:00 pm. The boat ride really was uneventful with the exception that Aidan was feeling a bit seasick for the first couple of hours.

We had booked into the Gili Air Hotel, which is at the other end of the island. There are no cars allowed on the island (no motorcycles either), no paved roads as they are all sand, and you either walk or take a pony cart to where you want to go. We chose the pony cart option to get to the hotel ($5). Aidan thought it was great. The hotel is very nice and has the only swimming pool on the island. We didn't find out that it was saltwater until later. Actually there is only one hotel that has a freshwater well, so we all wash and shower in saltwater as there is no other option. We quickly settled in and had a late dinner in the open air lounge in front of the ocean.

The next morning we could actually see where we were and start to explore. The tide was out and so we walked out and looked into the tidal pools in front of the hotel. After a hearty breakfast (all included in the $35 Cdn a night room price), Aidan put on his swimsuit and headed to the pool. Here we met Stephanie and her three children: Minot 10, Lucas 8, and Julien 3. Lucas and Aidan and they get along famously. She is on Gili Air for a week with the kids and they were in Senggigi the previous week. Her husband headed back to Singapore as he had to go back to work. They are from France, but all of the children speak English. Aidan was trying to practice some of his French. We had a great chat and all decided to go snorkeling in the afternoon. Mike went and made the arrangements and for $30 Cdn for each family we were set.

We got on the smaller outrigger boat at 1:30 and headed to the harbour as we needed to pick up masks and fins. It took twice as long as normal as the motor wasn't working properly and they had to change the motor once we got to the main harbour. I should note that the main harbour consists of a few boats and a small shop. Finally we were set and headed out to the Gili Trawangan (10 minutes away). Into the water and the most spectacular reef I have ever seen - I felt like I was in the National Geographic pictures. I lost count of the number of different fish and corals I saw - red, pink, blue and all amazing. We spent the next three hours moving from spot to spot. Even Aidan had a great time as he went out and hung on to the boats wooden outrigger and floated along sticking his head under the water to watch everything. The best part was that the water was perfectly clear and the visibility was at least 50 feet down. The highlight for me had to be swimming along with enormous sea turtles - we saw 4 at different spots. One was sitting on the bottom about 20 feet down eating with a very large fish eating along side it.

Side note: All of the cats have tails that look as though they have been chopped off half way down. Mike just came and told me that he found out that no tail chopping is done and that this is part of the breed of cats.

After schoolwork yesterday morning we decided to walk down to the other end of the island, toward the harbour. We followed the road along the ocean and walked by the line of small restaurants, a couple of very small stores, and small hotels very similar to our own. The walk takes about 40 minutes. Toward the other end we hit the jackpot. A beautiful beach with lots of people snorkeling right off shore. Mike and Aidan decided to try it out and rented some gear for a whole $2. Unfortunately I was wearing my glasses so I walked into the main harbour and looked around. Not much to see other than some locals building a fishing boat - which was really interesting as it was all done with pegs. Anyway I found a restaurant that was recommended by a local and thought we should head there for lunch. I got back Mike said that the snorkeling just off the shore was really great, so for a whole $4 return I hopped a pony cart and headed back to the hotel for my contact lenses. We all went for a really good and of course really cheap lunch at GoGo and then Aidan and I went snorkeling as Mike had to head back to the hotel to book a boat back to Lombok.

We had decided to leave the next day for Senggigi and we had to book the boat by 3:00. Mike also had to get some additional cash as we needed to pick up a few snacks etc. While he was away I made friends with an English couple who were on there way to Australia on a one-way ticket. They introduced me to a delicious drink called jungle juice. They had been here for two weeks and he had bought a very large duck from a local. It was going to be killed tomorrow night and the local guy was going to prepare a feast. Funny actually. Mike eventually came back with Stephanie and the kids and soon another boy Aidan's age joined the gang. Nathan is from Belgium and is travelling for 6 months with his mom. All the boys were on the beach playing, while the adults took turns snorkeling, drinking jungle juice around the beach bar and swapping stories for the remainder of the afternoon. The highlight today was seeing an octopus out on the reef and a very large sea snake. The best thing about snorkeling right off shore is that the water depth is only 12 - 20 feet and so you can easily dive under and see everything really close up.

We finally headed back to the hotel where more swimming in the pool ensued. Then a nice satay dinner overlooking the ocean. I should also mention that all of our fun at the beach led us to postpone our leaving. We delayed our departure by a day and will be heading back down to the beach in about an hour to spend the day there. Because we were around another day, Aidan decided to have a sleep-over with Lucas in our hotel room. Yeah the fun.

The only bad thing that has happened is that our camera crapped out on us yesterday. Our stupid waterproof camera apparently decided to not be waterproof anymore. So we are in paradise and sadly cannot take any pictures. Our backup camera is our cell phone so we are going to try but the quality will not be good. The camera did show a flicker of life this morning but it is not working properly at all. It is unlikely that we will be able to buy a new camera until we get to Singapore after Christmas. This has made us very mad, but there is not much we can do about it. Best to just relax and drink more jungle juice.

From China to Bali

We arrived in Bali 2 days ago, so its a good opportunity to reflect on our recent visit to China.

Overall we're both very impressed with Hong Kong. It is a beautiful city and has a tremendous amount to offer. We had the opportunity to explore a bit more of the city over the past few days while we stayed with Luc, Diane, JP and Sebastian. Diane is the sister of one of Susan's best friends, Theresa. Luc and Diane rolled out the red carpet and we really appreciated the hospitality.

Hong Kong is a dynamic city and you can literally see and feel the energy of Asia and China flowing through the port. We were fascinated by the multiculturalism and deeply impressed by the cleanliness, safety and order of the place. The mass transit system is the best we have seen to date, and its difficult to see how it could be topped. Soho is a wonderful mix of tiny shops and restaurants and Kowloon is also well worth a visit. We also enjoyed the Peak Tram and walking through the many parks in and around Hong Kong. I'm impressed by how much of the island is left in a more-or-less natural state.

The key to Hong Kong's livability is urban density. Coming from some of the lowest density cities on the plant, we are struck by what Canadians are missing out on. You can easily walk to most places or take the MTR, and the variety of shops and restaurants that are available to you far surpass what we have available. If there is a downside to urban density, its crowds. It can be overwhelming at times. Guangzhou and the other cities we visited in China are a good example of this fact.

The cliche we all hear is that the 21st century belongs to China, and we are certainly inclined to believe it after our short visit. There are construction cranes everywhere and we saw every major multinational represented in addition to vast amounts of human capital.

One of the more startling things about China for me was the penetration of western businesses into the country. From Nike to KFC, there are an amazing variety of western brands available within China, many of which are produced here. The offices and factories around Hong Kong read like a who's who list of transnational corporations.

Enough about China for now. I need to thank the Muller/St.Amour family for all of their hospitality while we were in Hong Kong. We ended up spending our last two days with them and stayed at their beautiful apartment in the mid-levels on Hong Kong Island. We had a fabulous time relaxing and seeing the sites on the island.

We quickly settled in and it was great to see Aidan have so much fun with Diane and Luc's two boys - JP and Sebastian, who, despite being older than Aidan spent a lot of time with him playing. They are also fabulous hosts. On our last night, Diane got a chocolate cake for Aidan's birthday and we all celebrated with an early birthday party. Laura also made our stay awesome and cooked some great ribs for dinner one night. Thanks again to you all.

We left for Bali on Thursday morning and had no problems getting to the airport - checked our baggage and got our boarding passes at the airport express train station on the island (how great is that!). Arrived in Bali to be greeted by a scorching 31C. No complaints though.

We quickly found a family hotel that costs $20 Canadian per night for all of us, has a pool and includes a good breakfast. This is in the Kuta Beach area. We are leaving in about 10 minutes for Gili Air Island. We have booked into a hotel for a couple of days. Mike was right about the prices here - very cheap - we all ate a big dinner last night (e.g., three chocolate shakes, chicken and shrimp satays, two appetizers, salad) and it was $9.30 Cdn total. Food and drink is very cheap and so that leaves us more funds for other things - yeah.

I'm a Rock Star in China

The last two days have been a fun-filled adventure here in Yangshuo. Yesterday began with a bacon and egg breakfast after which Susan ran off to her cooking class out in the countryside. Aidan and I played guns around the hotel. This really amuses the staff, who think Aidan is the cutest thing ever. Personally, I find it boring, but we realize that Aidan really needs his play time, so we both take turns being a surrogate six-year-old. Aidan and I also did some window-shopping and then went out for lunch where he scarfed down a dozen dumplings while I enjoyed some pork and vegetable soup. Real Chinese food, yum!

During lunch, Aidan and I met a Chinese couple from Guangzhou. We had a nice conversation and posed for yet another round of pictures. I think we have now posed for enough photos to fill a small scrapbook. If you ever feel lonely, I would suggest coming to China. I guarantee you will have a room-full of new friends in no time. The people here are truly happy to meet foreigners.

The downside of being a foreigner in China is that you often feel like your are a walking money machine. Everyone says 'hello' to you (the only English word many know), followed by a request to buy whatever they happen to be holding at the time. Its very funny for the first little while but gets stale fast, so we quickly developed the 'im-not-interested' stare you see on all the foreign faces here.

Susan returned from the cooking class saying its the best thing she's done so far on the trip. It started with an introduction to the local market, including the slaughtering areas. We went back today for photos and got some wonderful pictures of the amazing array of fish, vegetables and meats she had the opportunity to learn about. The Chinese have the most varied diet in the world, and you get to see it all in the market, including more exotic items like dog, cat and snake. Not for us, but it was certainly interesting to see. Susan also learned how to cook properly with a wok and the secrets to making good Chinese dishes. I'll have to let her elaborate on the rest.

Susan's note: Not much more to elaborate on except that it was really really fun to go through the market with someone from here. Yes a varied diet and the sights from the market I won't soon forget. The grocery stores are very small here as all produce, meats, spices and eggs are sold in the market - they only goods at the grocery store are packaged or cans - and there is no real refrigeration to speak of so all the meats are killed and eaten same day.

We had a quick discussion about activities for the afternoon and weighed the option of sitting around the hotel drinking beer and soaking up the sun against the opportunity to go to Xingping village and take a cruise on a bamboo boat up the Li river. Xingping is very famous in China as the view up the river from the village is on the back of the 20 Yuan note. Despite the fact that Susan was cold and tired from standing all morning in an unheated house in the country, she agreed to go to Xingping anyway.

We jumped on a local bus for the 30 minute ride to Xingping, stopping along the way to pick up and drop off people in the little villages. We got down to the docks and were treated to one of the most stunning landscapes either of us have ever seen. We boarded our bamboo boat (this one had a motor) and proceeded up the river at a leisurely rate enjoying the spectacular scenery. About 10 minutes into the trip, the sun dipped behind the first mountain and the air got much colder. It didn't take us long to realize that we were under-dressed. I had shorts on and a fleece sweater; Aidan had pants on and a jacket, but no fleece; and Susan had a fleece on with a skirt and leotards. To make a long story short, the views we had from the 1.5 hour river trip were spellbinding, but we were all popsicles by the end. Susan in particular was starting to shiver uncontrollably.

We finished the river cruise and warmed up on the way back to Yangshuo on the bus. We were all looking forward to a hot meal and a hot shower before heading out to a night show on the Li River. However, by the time we got back in was 6:30 and the bus was picking us up at 6:40 so we only had time to do the fastest layering on of clothing in history (three shirts, two pairs of pants, etc.).

Off we headed to see the San Jie Liu Impression, which is the core project of the Li River Mountain Water Theatre and was created byy the same individual that composed the opening ceremonies for the Olympic games in Bejing. The theatre is the biggest natural stage in the world - built on the Li River and stretches for 2 km in length with 12 karst mountain peaks as the backdrop. There are over 600 performers in the production. We didn't know what to really expect, but I can now say that this will go down as one of the highlights of our entire trip. The 70 minute performance was absolutely incredible with singing, fishing nets, bamboo rafts and lights making a show beyond belief. The sheer magnitude and scale of the production was something we won't forget. Mike also says that it was really weird that people don't clap here - everyone just got up and left and we could tell where all the foreigners were sitting.

On Sunday we started out again bright and early with our regular foreigner breakfast of eggs, toast, and yogurt. We made arrangements to take a sleeper bus to Shenzen on Monday night (this will get us just across the border from Hong Kong). We leave at 8:00 and arrive at 7:00 in the morning. Mike also made arrangements to go on a hot air ballon ride for us all in the afternoon. Earlier in the day, Mike and Aidan climbed up the Yangshuo peak in the park to look at the views and the pagoda. I went shopping. I don't normally like to shop much and so as a walking dollar bill I found this a bit difficult. I really need to practice my bargaining skills. All worked out okay and I did end up with a few souvineers.

Hot air ballooning in China - yes check done that now. Okay it was really cheap compared to what it would have cost us in Canada (we have checked into it) and Aidan was only 1/3 the price. Off we went in a van to a deserted road somewhere outside of town. Three balloons were going up and we were in the second one. Not a lot of room to turn around in the baskets, but Mike managed to get some spectacular video and pictures and I managed not to freak out. Aidan really enjoyed the ride, but once we hit 1.2 km up he politely requested that we please go down a bit. Mike was loving it. Amazing scenery and we managed to pick an orange off a tree on the way down. Fun.

That was enough excitement for us (well for me anyway). Our last day has been spent packing, relaxing and wandering around town. We leave in a few short hours. Mike promises to write some further thoughts on China tomorrow.

Pictures of the Yangshuo market here.

Pictures of the Li River boat trip here.

Pictures of the 600 person river show here.

Pictures of the hot air balloon ride over Yangshuo here.

Into China

I am sitting here in a lovely warm hotel room and both Michael and Aidan are out having body massages. It's okay because I am going to the Yangshuo cooking school tomorrow for a class. More on that later. So we made it to Yangshuo ... today is Friday and we left Hong Kong on Wednesday morning. What follows is how we got here.

We left our hotel in Hong Kong on Wednesday morning and headed to the bus station, only to find out it was the wrong station. We didn't despair and took the subway to the correct station and then bought bus ticket for the 1:00 bus to Guangzhou, China (directly north of Hong Kong). The bus stopped at the border and we went through customs and immigration without any problems. The ride took about 4 hours and it seemed like we never left the city as it was one apartment building and high rise after another for the whole bus ride. The bus let us off at a hotel travel shop and we were lucky to run into someone inside who spoke English. We found out that to get a bus to Guilin we needed to go to one of the large bus stations. They wrote out where we needed to go in Chinese and then we caught a taxi - all was no problem.

We arrived at one of the largest bus/train stations that I have ever seen and immediately headed to the information desk where the lovely lady spoke English and answered all our questions. We were then able to book tickets on the 10:30 p.m. bus to Guilin (about a 10 hour ride). Now we just had four hours to hang out - so we walked across the street to the only restaurant around - KFC - and had a bite to eat. Note: it was interesting to be introduced to the Chinese practice of horking and spitting - especially the spitting on the floor.

The bus wasn't a sleeper but the seats were fairly comfortable and Aidan was asleep before we even got on the bus. I am not sure I would have wanted to do this trip in the day time as the traffic would have been horrible (it was bad enough at night) and I am not sure I could have handled seeing all the lane changing and fast driving. It was probably better that it was dark. We realized on the bus that we really wanted to stay in Yangshou instead of Guilin and so when the bus stopped here first we got off.

We all hopped in the back of a motor-bike-like vehicle that was pulling a cart and headed to the centre of the town. Yangshou is a village of about 30,000 people that is connected to the bigger town of Guilin (about 66 km away) by the Li River. The most stunning feature of this area of China is the karst topography. Soaring limestone peaks are everywhere and below are smaller villages and rural agricultural areas - rice, oranges, and vegetable fields are everywhere.

We quickly found a good hotel recommended in the Lonely Planet Guide called the Morning Sun Guest House, which is right down in the centre of town and close to everything. We are very happy with the large three bed room and after checking in we popped across the street to one of the many cafes for coffee and breakfast. Because this is such a popular tourist destination there are many touts and others trying to sell everything from flowers to CD's. We did make arrangements with a local guide named Teng to take us out on a bike tour for the next day. As we were all fairly tired from the long overnight bus we took it easy for the rest of the day, which was spent exploring the town and, in Aidan's case, eating very large quantities of pork dumplings.

Although this may all go to Aidan's head when he is older I should note that many many people have been stopping and staring at him and making comments to us that he is so beautiful. He is quite the ham and enjoys posing for pictures and soaking up all the attention - especially when it means people give him cookies!

After breakfast on Friday morning we met up with Teng and got our bikes - Aidan and Mike were riding on a tandem bike. This worked out well, but by the end of the day I think Mike was missing having a bike with gears. Teng led us out of town and this was interesting in and of itself as the primary mode of transport is the bicycle and motorcycle so the roads are full of people biking and pulling carts and bikes with many people on them. It was hard to concentrate on my own bike because I was so busy looking around at everything else that was going on. We then proceeded into the countryside where there were stunning views of the landscape.

We reached the Yulong River and Teng made arrangements for us to take a bamboo raft ride down the river for abott 1.5 hours. Off we went on a very long and skinny raft with a strong young man poling in the back. We floated down through some very scenic landscape and had fun during the trip as we had to go over a series of small dams (like very small waterfall shoots) in the raft. The raft actually goes under the water and then pops back up so for each one we put our feet up (we were on chairs). However the rafts are only meant for 2 people and we had 3 squeezed on so for one of the larger drops, the raft went under very far and Mike and I both ended up with wet butts.

We then biked to the base of Moon Hill, a rock formation that is in the shape of a crescent moon. We all walked (well Aidan ran) up the 1200 steps to the top and took in some wonderful views of the countryside. The 80+ year old women also walked up to the top with us in hopes that we would buy cold water and pop from them as they cart small coolers with drinks up the route several times a day.

Teng took us to a restaurant for lunch near the village where she lives and we all enjoyed a very Chinese lunch of rice and vegetables. They did make Aidan some special dumplings that are made with pork and vegetables but the outside is egg. They are special because they are more difficult to make and are usually only made on special occasions.

After a great lunch, Teng took us to her house in her small village. She lives in a very small house with 9 other family members including her mother and sisters and their families/children. Her small 2 year old nephew was asleep in the common room. The large common room has a cement floor as they build a fire on the floor in the coldest winter months (January and February) as none of the homes have any heating. Here we tried pomellos which are grown in the area. We were also honoured to meet her mother and an elderly aunt. She then took us to the primary school in the village. The children were having a 15 minute recess so we went into a classroom. It was very basic with wooden desks and a blackboard - that was all that was in any of the rooms. Teng said that when she went to the school there were 60 students in her grade 1 class and today in the class there were only 7 students. She said this is the result of the 1 child policy in China. We left Canada pins for the children.

Teng pointed out many things in the village (water buffalo, ducks, all crops tilled by hand) and told us a lot about the customs and the crops. She also showed us a cave in the nearby karst tower that was used by the villagers during World War II. She said her father was born in the cave and lived there with the surviving members of the village for three years when Japan occupied this part of China. She said her aunt was a young girl then and still tells them about what happened during that time and how they survived living in caves in the surrounding area. Very sad stories.

We took the long route back to town through the trails in the fields and crops and finally made it back to the hotel around 5:00 - all very very tired and a bit sore - but all very very happy for having had a fabulous tour and for seeing what Teng referred to as the real China - the countryside.

Stinky feet, jet lag, and Chungking mansion

We made it to Hong Kong and what follows is the detailed account of this part of the trip.

First I should note that we broke our computer on our last night in Rio. To be accurate, I broke the computer screen by stepping on it in the middle of the night. I use the word "we" because Michael left it on the floor.

So after realizing that we couldn't do anything about the computer until reaching Hong Kong and seeing that our last day in Rio was bright and sunny we headed out to Sugar Loaf Mountain. Aidan was very excited because over the past several days he watched Moonraker several times and wanted to ride the same cable car as James Bond and Jaws. We had a magnificent view of the whole city and were really taken by how stunningly beautifully situated it is along the ocean. After our little tour we headed back to the hostel to pack and do some last minute shopping before heading to the airport. Rush our traffic in Rio is no different than anywhere else and what should have been a 40 minute bus ride turned into a 2 hour bus ride. Good thing the flight didn't leave until 8:30 p.m.

We settled onto the plane for our 12.5 hour flight to Houston. Aidan's shoes had to be put into a garbage bag and then stored because they stunk so badly. Poor kid - the shoes don't breath well and his feet really sweat - bad combination and new shoes are definitely in order. The flight went well and we all got some sleep - Aidan a solid 8 hours, me 5 hours and poor Mike only a couple of hours. We landed in Houston around 5:30 in the morning and had no problems clearing Customs and immigration. We then ordered coffee and bacon and eggs for breakfast and waited the three hours until the next flight to Los Angeles.

The time keeps changing on us and messing us up but we arrived into LA around 11:00 a.m. Our flight to Hong Kong didn't leave until 10:30 that night (November 29th) so we took a bus from the airport to a bus terminal as we had been told we could catch another bus to a mall. However this was Saturday and we were not in South America anymore where buses are constant and you never have to wait more than 5 minutes for a bus. So once we determined that we had a 45 minute wait, Mike started talking to one of the other bus drivers that was at the stop and asked him if there was anything interesting to see on his route. After hearing our story he said that he headed toward Hollywood Blvd and to get on board. He then made us transfer to another bus that would get us there faster, wouldn't let us pay for the bus, and slipped Mike three transit day passes as we left. Nice nice guy.

So we ended up wandering around Hollywood Blvd and saw the stars outside that famous Chinese theatre where they all have there handprints and people are all dressed up as characters. Aidan was thrilled to be able to meet and have his picture taken with Master Chief from the game Halo. We were thrilled to find a shoe store and buy Aidan some new runners. By this time exhaustion was setting in and we headed back to the airport on an express bus. We had some dinner, checked-in (our baggage had been checked through already from Houston) and set Aidan up under some chairs to go to sleep. Mike ended up carrying him onto the plane for the last 15.5 hour flight.

We all went to sleep right away and this time it was me who really didn't sleep well. I will say that it was nice to fly with Cathay Pacific - lots of room and great service. We were fortunate to have in-flight personal entertainment systems in the seats with over 300 movies, 100 television shows and games to choose from. The flight went well and was uneventful. We arrived in Hong Kong at 5:30 a.m. on December 1 and somehow lost November 30th in there somewhere.

We walked through customs no questions asked and picked up our baggage. This island airport is huge and quite something to see. After freshening up, having some coffee, and trying to check email on the limited amount of screen that was still working on the computer, we jumped on a bus and headed to Kowloon where we had reserved a room in the Chungking Mansion. The area we are in is across from Hong Kong island and is very close to shopping, the ferries, and the cultural centre.

We enjoyed the hour long bus ride and were all amazed by the port facilities and skyscapers. We are actually staying at the Guangdong Guest House in the Chungking Mansion. I wouldn't use the term mansion to really describe this housing/store complex. The building has been accommodating new immigrants to Hong Kong in its maze for over 500 years. We are staying on the 5th floor in a three bedroom room with its own ensuite. Simon, the manager, is wonderful and very helpful. Aidan particularly enjoys the bathroom as it is a 3x3 square with toilet, sink and shower in the little square. He likes showering and getting the water all over the toilet and not having to worry about it. Michael says welcome to Asia.

After settling in we headed out for a walk and some dim sum. Lots of neon, lots of shops, lots of smells, but no litter. Jet lag was really setting in so we headed back to the room for a two hour nap. The nap ended up being four hours. Oops. Out for a snack which wasn't hard to find because the mansion is full of east Indian restaurants and food stands. Then off for a walk. We headed into the maze of stores and followed signs to where there was a wing of children's stores. An example of some of the stores were: Armani for Kids, Burberry children's store, DKNY Kids ... Yikes. We spent most of our time with Aidan looking at toys in Toys R Us.

We realized on our walk back to our room that Aidan had lost his stuffy George on our walk. So back we went. After going back to the toy store and searching for 1/2 hour with Aidan on the verge of a breakdown we finally found George in a bin with other stuffed animals. Someone must have found him and thought it was a stuffed animal from the bin (how I don't know because this old thing is a real wreck)- lucky us as I was not looking forward to a miserable night. Aidan finally believes us now that George should stay in the room when we go out.

Up very bright and early in the morning and Aidan and Mike headed out in search of breakfast. They came back with Aidan's personal favourite - yes McBarfy's, I mean McDonalds. This was good as I had been promised a Starbucks later in the morning. We eventually headed out to Star City, near our hotel, which has 12 computer stores in one building. We quickly found a new computer and made arrangements to have all of our data transferred. We brought our old computer back to the hotel and then headed to the Star Ferry terminal to get tickets for the harbour tour. Aidan was hungry again and so we stopped at a one of the many bakeries for snacks. After getting the computer set up, we got it back and made the walk back to the hotel one more time. We then headed out for our ferry tour. We had to get off at one of the ferry stops on Hong Kong and find another computer store so that we could pick up the extra free battery that came with our new computer.

We had a good venture on the island although I was not enjoying the throngs of people that you constantly have to battle through on the streets. While waiting for the ferry, Aidan enjoyed watching two men fish and they enjoyed watching Aidan. He is getting use to people touching his hair now. Funny. Once the harbour tour was over we were all really really tired again and had to come back to our room where we repeated our try for a two hour nap that ended up turning into four hours. Hopefully by tomorrow our internal clocks will be reset.

First thing in the morning I am going to try giving a call to Diane St.Amour, the sister of good friends of mine, who lives on Hong Kong island with her family. She has sent a couple of emails that I finally was able to get tonight. We are going to head into China tomorrow and likely take an overnight bus to Guilin along the Li River. We would like to come back into Hong Kong on the 9th as we fly out to Bali on the 11th. We still have some Christmas shopping to do.

We are really enjoying the city and the public transportation system here puts every other we have used to shame.

It's like Christmas in your mouth...

We arrived in Paraty (pronounced Para-chi), which is a four hour bus ride south of Rio on Sunday afternoon. After passing countless beaches on the bus ride we knew that we were going to like this area. The town use to be a port for shipping gold to Portugal from Brazil and has quite a pirate history. We made our way to the Misti Chill Hostel and Poussada that is right on the beach. Turns out this little gem is being run by a couple of Canadians from Montreal. After much joking and swapping of stories we settled into our room and then took a stroll on the beach.

We really enjoyed this hostel. They have great staff and Mel is awesome. The other fun thing is that they have a Brazilian lady cook, so for $10 Real ($5 Cdn) you can sign up for dinner if you like what is on the menu. Tonight we are having chicken lasagna and salad. Cheap and big portions - should work out well since we had cheese and crackers for lunch (by choice as we are eating too much). I have also realized that I am really preoccupied with food and probably shouldn't write about it so much. Anyway on with the tale...

This is going to be fairly factual as I have three days to cover and we actually have done some stuff. Paraty is really lovely with cobblestone streets that are pedestrian only and white washed buildings. The town is a UNESCO world-heritage site, and its easy to see why.

On Monday we headed to the main pier as we had booked a schooner trip. We headed out on the Francis Drake and spent the next five hours touring beaches on other islands and doing some snorkeling. It was a really fun day and would have been even more fun if the weather had been a bit better. It started out sunny and then turned gray and overcast for most of the day. We still managed to get a bit sunburned. Once the tour was over, I headed to the Supermercado in the pouring rain to purchase a few items for dinner. As it was cold and chilly we agreed that a chicken stew would be good. I ended up coming back with ingredients for a beef stew. Couldn't find any chicken and had a hard enough time buying the beef. Nothing is sold pre-packaged so you ask for exactly what cut you want and how much - yeah right this would be hard enough for me in English never mind Portugese. I ended up with some meat and found out later that if you want chicken you have to ask the butchers for it from the back room.

Tuesday was spent relaxing. As it was sunnier than the previous day we walked over to an adjacent beach and lounged around for a few hours. Aidan made friends with a local boy and they played army men and built sandcastles together. We then headed to the small fort on a hill overlooking the ocean, but were sad to find out it was closed. The walk was good and Aidan was happy to see cannons. The rest of the day was spent wandering around town checking out the shops. We ended up at an ice cream shop where, yes you guessed it, they sell it by the kilogram. Put whatever you want in a bowl and then get it weighed. Fun for all. There were 4 people behind the counter and it is self serve place. This is typical as we have seen tiny shops with lots of clerks (e.g., at a juice place I counted 8 people behind the counter). One guy behind the ice cream counter had the sole job of putting clean water in the containers with the ice cream scoops as soon as a scoop was used.

We didn't know what we were going to do on Wednesday and then after talking to a few people around the breakfast table we decided to do a jeep tour for 6 hours, which takes people to waterfalls, a museum and a distillery where they make cachaca (alcohol from sugar cane). We were off in a half an hour. A big army type jeep truck with about 9 of us piled in the back. Our driver didn't speak any English so we really had no idea what we were in store for, but day turned out to be a lot of fun. Our first stop was a waterfall where people could climb along a trail and then slide down huge rocks to a pool at the bottom. Mike and Aidan both had a great time doing this. I was unable as I was in charge of the pictures (and I am a chicken). We have some great video of Aidan coming down.

The group then hiked up a trail, crossed a hanging bridge, to another spot where you could take a dip in a pool, but the current was quite strong so only Mike ventured in. The next stop was the distillery where we all sampled sugar cane and then the cachaca. It is made into different flavours and we really enjoyed the cinnamon flavoured one - a guy from the U.K had the best comment as he said "It's like Christmas in your mouth." So we bought a bottle.

The jeep then headed to another spot and after a short hike we were again at a beautiful waterfall. The trail led up above the waterfall where there was a great swimming hole below another set of falls. The water was freezing but we all went in anyway. Very refreshing. The more adventurous types of the group took turns jumping off the waterfall into the pool (yes Mike included).

The next spot was kind of a museum/restaurant type place where we all had a late lunch. In the museum a lady made coffee over a wood stove and Mike and I agree that it was some of the best coffee we have had on this trip. Tiny cups and only about 3 ounces of strong black coffee. Very good. Aidan enjoyed trying all the different pieces of equipment he kept finding around the farm place as nothing is roped off and you can pick up everything. The peacocks and ducks were also entertaining.

The final stop was at a greenhouse where we wandered by various plants and found frogs and snails living in the water in some of the big ones. Got some nice pictures and met some nice people. A really fun last day in Paraty. Back to Rio tomorrow morning and then we start our crazy 30+ hour travel to Hong Kong on Friday.

More pictures of Paraty here.

Not Perfect Weather, but Perfectly Cold Beer

We arrived in Rio on Friday and made our way on one of the airport buses to our hostel in Botafogo. It was interesting riding the bus into the central city area from where the international airport is located on the outskirts. We had good views of the different neighbourhoods (favelas).

The hostel is home to many musical types and Aidan enjoyed learning to play the bongo drums from some experts. After settling in, we took a short walk around the area and had a light dinner at yet another kilograma restaurant. Works for us!

We started out on Saturday with plans to see both Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks Rio) and to go up Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf mountain) on the cable car. First we went on the subway to a specific travel agency to get bus tickets to Paraty for the next day. This saved us from going to the central bus station that is quite a distance from where we are staying. Mental note: write out what you want to say on paper before getting trying to make your request as this will cause a lot less stress. It took a bit of thumbing through our language book and looking at calendars to communicate getting return tickets to Paraty.

We hailed a cab and headed to Corcovado so that we could take the cog railway ride to the top and take in some of the best views of Rio. Perhaps we should have paid more heed to the very cloudy sky because by the time we got to the top we couldn't see the top of the famous statue, never mind the magnificent views of the city (check out the pictures). The mist did move and we did get to see the statue. We decided not to head to Sugar Loaf mountain and as the rain started to fall we hopped on a bus to check out Copacabana. We walked along a very deserted beach and could imagine how packed it would be if the weather conditions were better.

Hunger set in and so we stopped to eat at a beach side restaurant. Mike decided to order the mixed grill for two. It takes us forever to navigate through the menu with our little dictionary trying to figure out what everything means. Aidan wanted eggs so we ordered scrambled eggs with bacon for him. We had no idea if our meat meal would come with additional food so we drank our chopp (draft) beer and waited. In Argentina if you order meat you get meat and then you order your potatoes or salad separately. We didn't have to wait long. Yikes we are in Brazil - food for a crowd arrived. A platter of fries, another of rice, another of bread crumb stuff, and a platter with the grill - two sausages, two steaks, two pork chops and two lamb chops. So we proceeded to stuff ourselves silly and swear we wouldn't eat any dinner. We then took a different bus back to our hostel. We were quite proud of ourselves because we took different buses and wandered around without having a map or directions of any sort with us.

I almost forgot to mention the cold beer. Brazilians love their beer served very cold - at a particular temperature. So it always comes out icy cold and then they put the 600 ml bottles (hey only $1.50 Canadian) into special thermos containers to keep them cold. Great.

Have poked our heads around some shops and we are finally starting to realize that Christmas is fast approaching. Hard to get our heads around this when the weather has been so warm. Home seems very very far away right now.

More pictures from Rio here.

I Love the Super Muffato

On Wednesday we made the trip across the border from Argentina to Foz do Iguazu, Brazil. The trip is routine enough that you can get on a public bus and make the trip. It is only about a 30 minute bus ride between the towns, but the bus does not wait while you clear immigration at the Brazilian customs and immigration. Travelers need to wait for the next bus, and this can mean up to an hour wait. We took the public bus into downtown and then transferred to another bus to get to our hostel. Cheap and fairly straightforward, but time consuming. The quicker, but more expensive option would be to take a taxi from the border. It did give us some time to practice Taekwondo patterns and do some spelling exercises with Aidan.

We stayed at the small and fairly new Charm de Iguazu Hostel. It turned out to be a perfect place for us. We got to the hostel in the early afternoon and Michael ventured up the road to find an ATM and a grocery store to pick up some lunch. Aidan and I hit the pool. Poor Mike, the directions to the ATM were not very clear and he ended up not finding it on his first venture out. He came back after wandering in the heat, fueled up with some water and set out again. He returned with a fixings for a wonderful lunch, and by this time Aidan had completed quite a bit of schoolwork between dips in the pool. We dug into ham and cheese sandwiches, bananas, apples and beer. The rest of the hot afternoon was spent lounging by the pool, which was really appreciated by Aidan.

We were originally going to try and see the falls from the Brazilian side (everyone recommended this), but by the time we got settled into the hostel, got money, and got lunch it was already after 3:00 and no one really wanted to venture out on buses again. We didn't realize that Foz has some great attractions and in hindsight we should have planned to spend some time here. Besides the falls there is also a bird sanctuary with over 400 species, the second largest dam in the world, and a monument that marks the spot where Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina meet. Perhaps on the next trip.

Later in the evening we all walked to the Super Muffato (supermarket) and it was, well, super. Huge store with everything - almost like a fancy pants superstore and it had the neatest rows of items. Amazing what you can do with lots of cheap labour. We saw an employee patting down bags of sugar so that they would stack in perfect columns. The Super Muffato also had a large cafeteria with a typical Brazilian buffet. Apparently this is a normal site in restaurants where you pay by the kilogram - in this case about $12 reals for a kilo ($6 dollars). Lots of variety and something for everyone; the entire meal cost us $10 Cdn. We love the Super Muffato!

Note from Aidan - I was swimming in the pool and started sneezing and wasn't looking and banged my mouth on the side of the pool and then my tooth was bleeding for a bit. The end.

We had a great rest and woke up bright and early to enjoy a buffet breakfast (included in the cost). A very nice lady does all the baking and Aidan certainly had many thank yous to say for the chocolate cake that was available at breakfast. We then headed off to catch our 10:00 flight to Rio.

Rain Ponchos are for Babies

On Tuesday we made the trip to Iguazu Falls. We knew it would be spectacular from the pictures we've seen, but nothing quite prepares you for the breadth and beauty of it.

Iguazu Falls is is on the Rio Iguazu and bordered by Argentina on one side and Brazil on the other, with Paraguay just a few kilometers upstream. After a little confusion about which bus we needed to jump on, we had a quick ride out to the national park. It costs about $20 per person to get in, but Aidan was free. One of the things we have learned on this trip is that traveling with a 5 or 6 year old child is just about perfect age since they usually get a discount or don't cost anything.

A short walk later we boarded the Green Train which takes you out to the main trails. There are several to choose from and they cover the upper and lower falls at several different points. We elected to go right out to the edge of the Devil's Throat, which is the picture you usually see on the postcard. A raised catwalk takes you out over the river for about 800m to an island on the precipice. Along the way we saw many wet but happy people returning so we knew what to expect. The view over the edge literally takes your breath away. Thundering over the edge are millions of gallons of water - more than Niagara - with a mist so thick you can't see the bottom of the falls; it also does a good job of drenching people. Hundreds of feet down are swallows darting back and forth in the mist. They live along the cliffs and presumably are catching bugs or fish that have gone over the falls.

It is hot enough here that by the time we got back to land we were pretty much dry. We decided to take a float tour down the river to the next set of falls, which was an enjoyable alternative to waiting in line for the train. After a quick bite to eat we set off to explore view Iguazu from the lower trails. For those not acquainted with area, there are dozens and dozens of waterfalls, each more spectacular than the next. We enjoyed the walk down immensely, stopping several times to take pictures and marvel at the sites.

At the bottom of Iguazu was our next tour - the Nautical Adventure - where you board a speedboat that takes you to the edge of the waterfalls. This turned out to be the highlight of our visit. After putting all our gear in a dry-sack, including my shoes (note to anyone else who goes: just wear a bathing suit, shirt and flip-flops) we boarded the boat, which was 'docked' with the bow on some rubber tires over a rock. The boat eased its way out and proceeded to go down the Devil's Throat right into the mist, which turned out to be like sitting in a shower with the water going full blast. Everyone was laughing like kids. Then we went around to the upper falls and repeated the maneuver 2 more times. I was very glad to have a waterproof camera, watch our videos and laugh.

If you ever doubted that negative ions from waterfalls make people happy, then to Iguazu Falls. There wasn't a frown in the park.

Pictures from Iguazu Falls here.

What country is our next flight from?

We made the hop from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu without a hitch yesterday. We flew out of the city airport on Lan airlines and landed an hour and a half later no worse for wear. All of us are starting to get used to good service, good food and plenty of legroom on flights in South America, which is bad news when we head home.

On arrival at the airport in Iguazu we walked off the plane into blast-furnace tropical heat. It felt like being back in Costa Rica. How soon we forget! This time we were smart and bypassed the taxi stand and took the transfer bus into the city, which was over 50% cheaper and accomplished the exact same task. I'm getting tired of taxis overcharging for rides into the city (this goes for many places in Canada and the US too). The bus dropped us off at the Puerto Canoas hostel, which is clean and relatively comfortable, however it lacks a pool. In this heat you really want a pool.

We spent the afternoon getting acquainted with the town and resting. The evening was spent in the kitchen preparing pasta and salad for dinner. After eating out for weeks, its nice to have a home cooked meal, and we all felt a little better for it.

Today was spent doing school work and making preparations for the next stages of our trip, including booking accommodations in Brazil and China. We also did a little research on Iguazu Falls, which we will be touring tomorrow and Thursday.

Buquebus to Uruguay

We are on the Buquebus (pronounced boo-key-boos) heading back to Buenos Aires from Colonia, Uruguay. Neither Michael or I can remember when we posted the last blog or where we left off so I am going to try and so a short synopsis of the last few days.

We managed to get our Visas for China on Wednesday morning without any problems and at much less cost than we would have paid in Canada. Mike went to the nearest post office to mail a parcel home but they only took parcels under 2.5 kg and ours was 2.6 kg so off Mike headed to the main post office. Aidan and I focused on schoolwork for the rest of the afternoon.

On Thursday morning we took a cab to the ferry terminal and caught the Buquebus for Colonia. We took the cheaper ferry (3 hours), but we ended up getting there in an hour and a half (???). Anyway after a short walk we found a lovely little bed and breakfast hotel to stay - nice rooms and it had a large sitting area and a garden with a pool in the backyard. As it was a hot day we were happy. Colonia is a sleepy little "colonial" town that was founded by the Portuguese and hence we did hear the occasional 'bom dias' instead of the usual Spanish. Mike and I enjoyed some of the best sangria I have had in a long time at lunch and then after walking around town (15 minutes) we headed back to relax around the pool in the afternoon. Much later, we ventured out again to grab some dinner and ended up at a family run street stand. Aidan had the biggest pancho (hotdog) I have ever seen and Mike and I split a completa sandwich, which was huge and had everything on it - breaded streak, ham, fried eggs, cheese, tomatoes, corn, peas, etc. We also ordered a 1 litre bottle of beer - all this for under $10. The added enjoyment was the friendly conversation with a man from Chile. The other thing we immediately noticed was the number of people drinking mate. Almost everyone carries around a thermos of hot water and a mate cup (carved gourd) with a silver straw. People drink their mate as they walk and in some cases drive - we saw a girl on the back of a motorbike pouring mate for the male driver as they rode down the street.

So after a restful night, we caught a bus to Montevideo on Friday morning. We found a room in a small, family run hotel within walking distance of the main square of town. We got into town in early afternoon and spent the rest of the day walking and looking around. It was a beautiful hot day and we enjoyed walking down to the rambla to watch the container ships come into port. We also visited Jose Artigas' mausoleum. Uruguay is known for its fabulous beaches and so we had it all planned out - Saturday would be spent on a beach - sounds simple. It is important to note that our little hotel room did not have any windows. We got up Saturday morning, put on our beach clothes, and headed out for a quick breakfast before we planned to catch a local bus to the beaches. One step out the door and we were met with a blast of what felt like winter - the temperature must have dropped at least 20 degrees overnight. It couldn't have been more than 10 C outside with a gusty cold wind blowing and gray skies. No beach for us. Back up to the room to put on pants and fleece sweaters. Aidan took this all pretty well considering the change in weather. After dawdling at the cafe over breakfast and schoolwork we thought we would walk about a bit and then try and catch the bus to the beaches just to have a look. Problem was that the #64 bus wouldn't stop to pick us up and after 20 minutes of trying to figure out where the bus stopped in the cold wind we gave up and thought maybe we could find a cinema and see a movie. We found the cinema, but they weren't showing any American films so that was a no go. We ended up back at the hotel around 3 to have a nap and watch The Hunt for Red October on television.

Sunday (today) is a lovely warm day. We again went out this morning as we had some time before we had to catch our bus back to Colonia and the ferry (if we had been thinking we would have booked the ferry back from Montevideo - oops). Sunday is a day of family bbq's and church. The only things open were the occasional restaurant. So for two hours we let Aidan be the leader and we followed him around. He ended up leading us through a local farmer's market to the rambla where he was content drawing sketches of ships. We chilled for an hour, headed back, caught our bus and should be docking in Buenos Aires in about 10 minutes.

Also, before I forget, Aidan is doing really well with his reading and is starting to be able to add numbers (1 - 10) in his head. We need to spend a bit more time with math though. He has also recently learned what strategy means and has invented his own game/system of drawing armies and ships and tanks and making strategy moves between two sides. I seriously think he could kick my butt in the game Risk now.

Despite the weather, we really enjoyed our short time in Uruguay - really friendly people and generally a calmer city than BA. I would like to go back and experience the beaches. BA was fun, but in hindsight a couple of days would have been enough. Good thing was we managed to get our visas for China. We are all happy to be heading to Igasu tomorrow.

End of night note: Once again another great meal in BA - wine, salad, steak and appetizers for under $30 (and another fun waiter in a white dinner jacket). Topped off the evening with more fabulous ice cream. We love that you can order ice-cream delivery. We saw them putting it into coolers on the back of motorcycles and off they went. A good way to spend our last night. Aidan enjoyed the evening also and discovered that he likes beef empanadas!

Pictures from Uruguay here.

Have Meat, Will Travel

Our last few days in Buenos Aires have been relaxed and enjoyable. We have lots of time to see the city, so we aren't pushing it.

We had dinner on Sunday night with Brandan, a nice guy from L.A. we met at the hostel. Brandan is spending 2 months studying Spanish in B.A. before he heads out to tour South America. He's currently trying to find a room in an apartment in B.A. to save some money. We had a great dinner at El Desnivel, a highly recommended restaurent in San Telmo. I ordered a tenderloin steak and was not disappointed. These Argentinians know how to do meat! It was easily one of the biggest and most perfectly prepared steaks I have ever had the pleasure of eating.

Monday was spent in the city centre visiting the Florida Avenue shopping district. Our downtown tour started with a quick bus trip to Galleria Pacifico, the country's swankiest mall. The Galleria is set in a historic downtown building that has been completely revitalized; it even features fescoes on the ceiling. Needless to say it puts almost anything we have seen in North America to shame.

We had a quick lunch and enjoyed looking at all the Argintenian stores (we could care less about the expensive American and European chains) before heading up to catch the World Photojournalism Award exhibit. The dispay has been touring the world's capitals and presents the best photos taken by news journalists over the past year. The pictures are all gripping in their own way, and many are downright shocking. Its hard to believe what still goes on in our world. There were several pictures that I was particulary moved by. If the exhibit ever makes it to your part of the world, go see it.

Susan has now taken over some blog writing. I need to apologize for any (and probably many) inaccurracies in the blogs on our adventures in Peru. My knowledge of Peru's history and the Quechua people is extremely limited, but I do know more now than I did before I visited!

So back to Buenes Aires...

The hostel has been having some problems with internet connections and so we had been spending every opportunity trying to look up a few bits of information every chance we got.

On Monday morning we called the Chinese embassy to inquire about getting a visa for China (instead of applying for a visa from Hong Kong). They said certainly we could come to their office and fill out the forms, but that it wouldn't be processed until Monday because the embassy is only open in the mornings from Monday to Thursday - problem is we leave on Monday. After another phone call we found out that for an additional fee they could turn it around overnight so we quickly made plans to head to the Chinese Embassy on Tuesday morning.

A great work collegue, Lou Espino, was touring through Peru and B.A. and we kept trying to meet. She had been sending me emails and I hadn't been able to read them. On Monday night I got a call from Lou. She was a few blocks away in the El Desnivel restaurant wondering if I got her email and if we were joining her for dinner. Aidan and I raced over and met her and about 20 others from the tour group. Mike had to make a quick stop at the Internet cafe to make some hostel bookings for Hong Kong (so we could get our visas). Another great dinner and it was really fun to hear all about their adventures. Seems they all suffered from some form of altitude sickess in Cusco and we were all fine. Whew for us.

We attempted to get up bright and early on Tuesday (well 7:30 is now very early) since we needed to get to the embassy. We walked downtown, took the subway to the end of the D line (Congresso de Tucumon or something like that) and then a taxi ride to the embassy. It was a little stressful trying to fill in the forms (Spanish and Chinese) with the help of a swamped young girl who spoke very little English but ried really hard. After an hour everything was submitted and we were told to come back tomorrow at 10:00 - fingers are crossed.

The afternoon was spent in Palermo, which is an area full of parks and much to Aidan's delight, the zoo. Guess where we went. Personally, I don't really like zoos very much, but it was hot and the zoo was full of trees and shady spots to sit and we had a very enjoyable afternoon looking at animals and spending time at the playground. Came back, picked up laundry, Mike got a haircut, and we picked up some food for dinner.

Tomorrow we need to do a bit of research into getting to Uruguay. B.A. is really nice, but it is a big big city. I am starting to prefer smaller places, preferably with beaches and pools. I also am not a fan of the letting your dog poop wherever it pleases rule. Yuck there is a lot of dog shit on the sidewalks. Anyway, we met a delightful couple from Minnesota at the hostel, who are now living in Costa Rica. They not only gave me some insights into the municipal system in Costa Rica and the lack of infrastructure, but they also were big fans of Uruguay and said that it only takes an hour to cross over by boat to a nice little town called Colonia or from Tigre to Carmelo - melo places and only a couple of hours from Montevideo. We are thinking of heading here from Thursday to Saturday or Sunday. Aidan is looking forward to some swim time and if it's this hot we might as well try to head for the beach.

That's all for now - will see what tomorrow brings.

More pictures of B.A. here.